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Derry man sentenced for assault, threatening

BRENTWOOD — A Derry man was sentenced on Tuesday to serve two to five years in state prison for assaulting his girlfriend and threatening to kill her with a shotgun.

Joseph Greenquist, 25, pleaded guilty to second-degree assault, criminal threatening and being a felon in possession of a weapon as part of a negotiated plea deal with county prosecutors.

He received a suspended 3½ to 7 year state prison sentence on the weapons charge that begins once he is released from custody.

Derry police arrested Greenquist on the night of July 29 after his girlfriend fled from her Everett Street apartment and reported the assault.

Prosecutors say Greenquist strangled the woman and slapped her on the buttocks at least four times with his hands, and forced the 21-year-old woman into a bedroom closet.

He propped a chair against the door to keep her from getting out.

Greenquist told his girlfriend that “they would both end up murdered if she did not stop acting like a brat,” according to court records.

He then started “pulling the trigger and working the action of a shotgun while positioned outside of a closet so that (she) could hear the weapon while trapped inside,” prosecutors said. Greenquist has been in county jail for 291 days, which will count toward his state prison sentence. He was indicted on two counts of criminal threatening, six counts of simple assault and charges of false imprisonment, second-degree assault and being a felon in possession of a weapon.

Prosecutors agreed to drop misdemeanor charges in the case in exchange for his guilty plea.

Greenquist could have faced up to 20 years behind bars and a $4,000 fine had he been convicted by a jury.

Greenquist was barred from having a weapon because of a 2006 burglary conviction in Strafford County Superior Court.